Moonrise was a Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance bestseller. Cassandra king is joining us today to help celebrate the 11 writers and friend of the festival pat conroy. A leading figure in the 20th century southern literature, conroy has influenced a generation of writers and move readers both in and out of the low country with his unforgettable pros. Today, king will discuss low country heart, a book published posthumously. I always struggle with that word. Please give a very warm welcome to cassandra king. [applause] thank you so much. It is great to be here in the sister city of savannah because i live over in buford. But im here frequently and i love savanna, i always think of savannah as scarlet ohara and charleston is miss melanie. So i have a soft spot for that. This of course is bittersweet for me to be here. Talking about that, especially here because its been almost a year. We took two weeks off from a year since his death and so its been a very difficult year as im sure you know. When the book came out last october, the publisher random house had asked me if i would go around and speak. To various festivals and so forth about the book. And if i would be able to do so. I told them of course that i would and it wouldnt be any problem. And so forth but then i wasnt so sure. Once i started to do so but what kept me going is i told myself, pat would have done it for me and he did. I remember one time, thomasville georgia, right here in your state. I got a great surprise and a great thrill because theyre still talking aboutit. Because i got the flu. And i was supposed to speak something in thomasville and just the day of practically, i still wasnt suffering and thought i was going and pat said no youre not, im going in your place. So they were thrilled. A lot of folks then hoped that i would get the flu. But if you ever heard pat speak, you will know thats why. He was absolutely one of the most entertaining speakers i have ever heard. Not that you could believe. [applause] half of his learning because he was 100 percent irish, i can tell you that but he was absolutely an entertaining and wonderful speaker. Its been rather strange in some ways to go around and speak for another writer about another writers book and to even sign that writers book. When i came to the savanna book festival for my own book several years ago, i was one of the first. I spoke in this church and sense i had written a book that some methodists didnt take very kindly to, i kept saying are you sure its going to be okay for me to speak there . But then last night at the reception i was told that pat spoke here the last time he was here and if they can survive pat, they can sure survive me. I think sometimes that we are given these book tours to keep us in our place and to keep us humble. I was lucky to tell this story about how writers can always stay in the south because i had done a book signing in my hometown of alabama and i saw in the states today so i pulled in to the sale and was looking around and there was a daughter and i found one of my books. Signed by me. To someone in dont wish. So i take the book up to the estate sale and i said is this book a dollar . And he looked at me and he said yes, you can have it for . 50. So i want to read a quote from the l. A. Times. Which is several years ago by pat. Misfortune has been good to novelist pat conroy. It is given him a family of eccentric, neurotic misfits , braggarts and liars. Since i read that im not quite sure which category i fall into. Maybe a little bit of all of those. But i was thinking about talking about that. And trying to make both see the path that i did. That i spent in the last 19 years. With and loved dearly. And respected so much and enjoyed so much. That you know, i was thinking i guess i could go around and do sort of a presentation as if i were speaking to some of my english classes about his works and he as a writer and his things and all this sort of stuff but i was thinking no, thats not really, what i think ill do instead, what ive been doing when i make these is just to tell some stories, some of pat stories that i heard. That will help them to see the kind of person he was a live with because it was quite a trip. It was quite a trip and i was also very, very blessed to have it that time with him. But then i want to make sure that i leave plenty of time for questions. Theres my person over there, hes going to wave and tell me when its time to shut my mouth. And had to some of you asking questions because i imagine some of you have questions about him. I was thinking in terms of what would be the story, some of the stories i could tell about pat because theres so many. And they just got all grimy because he was the funniest person i think ive ever met. He was like that all the time. Ive had people say to me and this is the truth, a couple of occasions oh honey, you are married to pat conroy . Bless your heart. I mean, that must really be difficult. Oh, hes just so darling. So tortured and all of you is like that. I felt like i was married to a modernday heathcliff or something. But i can see why you would think that about pat but i think no, thats me, hes the one you should be saying bless your heart. But he was so goodnatured. He got up in a good mood every morning. You know, sometimes i couldnt even get around him for a while because he was so cheerful. Just, not the tortured part did come out. In his writing. But i was thinking that one of the, my favorite things about pat is that he would never at a loss for words. He was, it was like most writers have an introverted side to him. But he was very much and over otherwise. Because i know one of his characteristics is that he had this ready reply. Im very much an introvert myself and im one of those people that always think i should have said so and so, that person hurt my feelings or he was so sarcastic and didnt know what to say. Pat never had that problem. As a matter of fact, it was pretty interesting to hear some of his responses. Occasionally i would travel with him, not too much especially after we were married a while. Just thats how that is, its a novelty at first and then its a chore. [laughter] but he was also combative. And he spent most of his life battling some money or some institution or you know, he would take out anybody about anything and some of you here are going to know what im talking about when i say savanna and a certain institute. Here is no exception. So it got into a battle but his very first book, this started when he was 25 years old and he took on the Beaufort County board of education. He went on to take on his favorite target or maybe his secondfavorite target , the citadel. And then his father, his family, and just anything that he perceived as an injustice. He was ready to always fight so consequently, he would, this hardly ever happens to me and it happened a few times but pat would tend to have some possibility sometimes from an audience. And i would cringe at first. Because you know, somebody would get up and say mister conroy, you said in a recent interview that blob loblaw and you know, he would question me and i would really get nervous and learned not to worry about it. As a matter of fact, i began to feel sorry for someone because i knew that shark turn was going to get them. So they shut up in a minute, not to worry about that. So one of his favorite targets was the theater all the water, the citadel. And he actually loved it. He enjoyed picking on them. That was one of his favorite things and anything he would say about the citadel would get picked up by newspapers. So i was talking about him being at a loss for words and ill give you a few examples, i was never lost for words and tell you one time that i did see him at a loss for words but he for example, the way he picked on the citadel. He once said in an interview that the citadel owed him a great debt of gratitude, that he was living proof that they could produce a graduate who not only knew how to use a semicolon but knew that it wasnt not part of the smiling test. [laughter] well, they didnt appreciate that much. So one time i was with him, he just given a talk. This man comes up to me and says mister conroy, i have a lot of citadel friends and they tell me not to pay any attention to what you wrote about the citadel and the discipline because you are not a typical citizen citadel man and pat said youre right powell, im a lot nicer , im a lot more successful and im a whole lot smarter. [laughter] so there you go, that was him. One time i saw him, somebody got him. He was speaking in atlanta and i tagged along this time. They put us up downtown at the ritz carlton and there was this very, very dignified, elegant gentleman who helped us take our suitcases and so forth and we were up there, he said to pat mister conroy, i heard them say downstairs that you and your wife both are writers and pat said thats right. But my wife writes pornography. While i write about things about christian fish. So ye was just looking over at me like that like, how are you going to get out of this one . And the guy threw his arms up and he said praise the lord brother. I run a christian radio program. And the lord promised me that he was sending me a speaker for tomorrows program. [applause] i cannot tell you, how i got out of that one because i was laughing so hard i had to go out of the room. But that was him. Now, i will have to tell you about my one and only come back and im so proud of it that i go around telling it all the time. But i was speaking at a festival down and i think it was fort lauderdale, and when i got there i noticed someone on the program had this huge, huge auditorium. It was full of us but three really wellknown southern writers, women writers. It was a southern women pastors and it was fanny flagg and folks like that. So i thought all i have to do is do my talk and i dont have to answer questions and sure enough, after we got through, ole miss flag, when is your next book coming out and whoever the others were. I dont remember now but i was just sitting there and i guess its because i wasnt paying that much attention because he raised his hand and got up and said i have a questionfor ms. King. Ms. King, id just like to know what it feels like to live with a worldclass writer. And i said oh, i think he likes it pretty well. And i dont even know where that came from. I just said it. Okay. Pat stories. Pat was, what was he. . How can i tell you about pat . He lived in another world. He lived in his head a lot. And so he was not very attentive. If you seen pictures of him, hes always wearing the same thing. He, his wardrobe, he was not known as a fashion plate or anything like that. So his wardrobe was tacky. And a Navy Blue Shirt usually and a navy blue blazer. And he just didnt think, he would just pull anything out. And for some reason, there was something about pat and having to go to a funeral that didnt work with his wardrobe choices. When i lost my sister about three years ago and i had gone on over and seemed pat change and this seemed to happen a lot, i went to his close out of the association came in. Now, they do anything without the car, its close. Except he had brought anything. So the morning of her Memorial Service we were out shopping. There was not much in a small cabin in alabama but there was a shop that sold the only thing we could find open, we have time to go to belts or Something Like that so they had prom close. And so pat goes to my sisters funeral, gives her eulogy looking like an italian pen. There was another time when a different flower in virginia died and pat was going to speak at her Memorial Service and actually its Barbara Borghi that he wrote about, he has a thing about Barbara Gordy in the book. And i was not able to attend area i had to fly to something and was not able to go so pat was going to drive up to the Memorial Service and then he was getting some kind of big award in Columbia South carolina. And at the college and like the president was presenting the award and so forth. So i knowing that i thought i had learned my lesson. And so i packed his close and i took a sheet of paper and i wrote Columbia South carolina. Put it over the hanging close and pick them up and put those back in the trunk. And he left in his khakis and tshirts and sports jacket, fortunately it was cold so he had a sports jacket. So, i explained everything to him and he had back problems so it wasnt like he it was ballet or something but a lot of times i would get the suitcase and get somebody to stay out there. So sure enough, i go out there to bring his suitcase in, after he had returned home from this presentation, jonathan, you might have been there. Im sure you pretended like you didnt know him which i would have done had i been there because still hanging over the suitcase, the hangers, be sure and waved his Columbia South carolina, which he had not done and never, i said pat, you wore this for three days. You wore this to barbaras service and now you just wore it to, oh, was i supposed to wear that . So that was that, he was very endearing about that. One more story then im going to see if we have some questions. From you. Because this one is absolutely one of my favorites and it involves pat. Dear friend bernie shine. Bernie shine is a whole story in himself. If youve read any of pats works and im sure most of you have, thats why youre here, his friend bernie appears in a lot of them. Bernie is just the most outrageous person that ever lived so he and pat were in total cahoots or i thought so until this afternoon. So in the last couple years, he had given up some of his bad habits. And so instead of having cocktails, he took up another bad habit, he would have a cigar. Every afternoon sitting on the porch. And this is an upstairs porch that we have in our house, their little smoking porch i guess and so bernie and pat would have this wonderful discussion and wed have this little david thing sitting on the daybed right by the window, they are right above me and i would love to hear it because they would both have some big mouse. Loud, bernie as of noxious as all get out. But they would always have these great conversations about literature and they get into these heated discussions. Until a couple summers ago, i had sort of a rough summer area and i was having some Health Problems and i was not feeling well at all and later this afternoon i got really really sick. And i started perspiring which because im a southern bellei never do. But something was really bad wrong. So i just was lying down there on my bed and i hear pat and bernie and im saying , i see the smoke coming out. And so i called up pat, bernie, pat and you know, they couldnt hear me. Because of their big mouse. And i could have called pat but he never had his phone with him. So i said ill just call 911. Because i thought i was dying. I thought i was having a heart attack and so they sent six, i was about to say paratroopers, paramedics. These huge men with all these huge muscles and they came and hooked meup to all their machines. A said man, are you here by yourself . By the end i said my husbands upstairs so paul taught, the guy goes looking and theyre sitting in the corner and he doesnt see pat and bertie. So he comes back and says i didnt notice until later but they carry me off, you know, the ambulance going and all this sort of stuff. About two hours later it gets dark. And bertie goes home. Pat comes down looking for me. And he looks and you know, he looks all around, its dark downstairs and theres no dinner or anything like that so he calls bernie and he says bernie, he called me sandra he says did sandra go home with you . And bernie said no. Why. I cant find her anywhere. Well, she just went, no, her car is out there so bernie said and on, ill come over and help you look. So bernie and pat go looking all through the night and we lived on this creek so pat said shes committed suicide. Finally, a woman cannot live with me, i knew all along i was never going to have a happy marriage. Shes jumped in the creek. And so forth. So bernie said, finally said im calling 911. And pat said did that, bernie said not here, shes got to be somewhere. So he calls 911, i said yes, we picked your wife up. Shes in the beaufort emergency room. Shes been here a couple hours. It gets better. Pat had, i had i remember this, his wardrobe and everything, i had called him to schedule the daughter, she had driven it back from philadelphia. He had never driven itbefore. He and bertie , they had to the hospital, its raining and pat kept turning, turned the lights come on, couldnt turn on thewindshield wipers so he rolled the window down , sticks his head out and drives. To the hospital. Lets bernie out while he climbs. Finds a place to park. And when he goes in, and pat comes out and they brought him in by ambulance and so forth and he looks out and says well, her husband is back there with her now. Cherished gift from pat are these wonderful little notes that he would write me. And some of them were hilarious. Pat had a nickname for me that he always said when he told people this, he said i know it sounds cruel, but it you knew her, you would see why i call her that. [laughter] because im from alabama, among other reasons, he called me helen keller. [laughter] and he called me that all the time because he said i said nothing, heard nothing, you know, saw nothing. [laughter] and that worked out well for him, because he could blame me for anything. If he was supposed to do something and he forgot, he would always say, well, helen keller didnt tell me i was supposed to do it. [laughter] and people would look at him like he really was crazy. So some of them are really going to look strange. His papers are at the university of South Carolina library. But among them will be notes to helen keller, love notes to helen keller. [laughter] so thats really are, really going to get some biographer one of these days fits, im sure. But he did. And those beautiful, beautiful words, you know, of his i will always cherish those. I have a gift and a question. Okay. I wear the ring. Uhoh. Pat and i were classmates. Oh, dear. And i have a copy of a 1966 shako which is this literary magazine where pat was the editor, and he has two poems in there that id like to give to you. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. [applause] why i have it 50 years later, i dont know. Im just glad that you do. But i also would ask you to speak to some of the wonderful things that pat wrote about the citadel later in his life. If i knew of any of em, i would. [laughter] no, he did. He and the citadel kissed and made up. He gave the 2001 im going to tell yall why im referring to jonathan in just a minute. 2001 commencement speech at the citadel. And i dont his funeral was a haze, i cant remember a whole bunch of it. But when he gave that commencement speech at at the citadel, he invited them to his funeral. And everybody thought that was strange, but he did it in context it made sense because he said when you come to my funeral and i hope its going to be a very long time from now. Unfortunately, it was not. But he said youre going to remember your graduation, youre going to think how swiftly time goes by. And so thats one of the things that i remember from the fine bal, is that they had [inaudible] yes, they did. And it was, they had a lot of these people were there. [inaudible] in the church [inaudible] yes. Yes, yes. And that was just so, that really, really touched me. But, yeah. He made up with the citadel. He had a, he had a great time with them. He might have missed with em, but i think hed gotten that out of his system. Whoa, im getting waved over here. Ive got ten minutes . Okay. [inaudible] whats my Favorite Book of his and why. I have, i love each of them for different reasons. That is not a, so much a diplomatic answer as a really true first one i read is the waters wide, and oh, my goodness, i still love that book and will always love it. I guess if i had, if i had to only have one, it would be the prince of tides, because that just has everything, you know . Its so beautiful. Its so beautiful. Okay. I would, first, like to add a plug in for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network research, and if anybody could make donations to them, i lost my mother to that also. Secondly, i ran into pat right after his 70th Birthday Party in a hotel lobby when he was trying to steal my husbands newspaper. [laughter] and and so i went up and, of course, i bowed to his feet [laughter] and then i apologized to him for not being able to make the party as my father was passing away at that time, and he said, oh, dont worry about it. He goes, it was horrible. There were just these damn famous people there, and my family, and you wouldnt have wanted to talk to any of em. [laughter] yep. He was humble and very down to earth, and thank you for sharing a part of him with us. Thank you. [applause] matt. Thank you, cassandra. Its good to see you back. You were in that [inaudible] for the very first festival, and a lot of people have shared wishes with me having to do with the tenth anniversary. And you and pat were both huge, huge to quote our president , huge [laughter] be contributors to the success of this thing. And i always related to one of pats less well known books, the water is wide. Because my father, born in 1900 in carroll county, georgia, which might as well have been 1800 in missouri, loved his students just like pat loved his. And he didnt give a damn about the organization. He would, he would teach classes as a School Superintendent at every opportunity. I was interested when pat spoke here in that same spot about as fraught as his relationship with the citadel was, he was published by citadel people. And he related the story of his first offer from a publisher. The stories around pat conroy are amazing, and youve shared so many of them today, but ill never forget the editor in new york who said, pat, this is the cutest thing [laughter] how did he come to get his first manuscript typed . He didnt write it it was written longhand, and that was not acceptable. How did he manage to get a presentable manuscript put together . He always told, and this has been verified by other people, that he just, his first wife, barbara, and he just took chapters all around to anybody they knew that had a typewriter and would be willing to type it. [laughter] and so it ended up some of it typed on their personal stationery and, you know, some of it on so it was a very odd assortment of love. Im so sorry that has not survived, that first manuscript. I dont think it has, has it, jonathan . Can i just tell real quickly why i keep referring to jonathan over here, get in a plug . To honor pat, we have just recently opened the pat conroy literary center. Please come see us in buford. [applause] weve got our First Program next monday night, and jonathan is here, and he is our new director. He was the former director of the university of South Carolina press. So we are very, very fortunate to have, have jonathan. And he was instrumental in getting pats archives to the South Carolina libraries and so forth. So thats, you know, hes sort of my builtin, you know, google over here. [laughter] okay. We have one, one more . Two more, a couple more. One more. I enjoyed pats cookbook. How much did he really cook . Well, glad you asked, im glad you asked that because im writing a cookbook memoir now, and its going to be about mine and pats life together and our, some of our cooking experiences. I want this to be a really light kind of book with the kind of stories i told you today. He, when we first married, he was doing most of the cooking, and weve got huge families on both sides. So we were having 25 people, dinner, you know, that was nothing unusual. So i was glad to turn the cooking over to pat, trust me. But pat, one thing everybody says about pat and i totally agree with, he was larger than life. Thats what you think of when you think of pat be in so many ways. His personality, his writing, you know, he was just a largerthanlife kind of person. He was the same way with his cooking. He could not i mean, he made huge dishes, but he wouldnt eat leftovers. [laughter] so some of you know, you know, the problem thats coming there. So i sort of began to take over the cooking [laughter] you know, a little bit especially as he tried to get healthier because pat could not cook without heavy cream, butter, and his favorites bacon, bacon drippings, you know . [laughter] which, of course, the most delicious, heavy cream, butter, bay caron grease, whats bacon grease. Whats worse for you, you know . So i got him healthier, and the only way i could do it really was just to take up the cooking, which i did. And it was but we had, we had a lot of fun cooking together and having dinner parties together and so forth. Thank yall so very much. [applause] [applause] booktv is on twitter and facebook, and we want to hear from you. Tweet as, twitter. Com booktv, or post a comment on our facebook page, facebook. Com booktv. Today booktv is live from the 15th annual Annapolis Book festival in maryland beginning at 10 a. M. Eastern our coverage includes a Panel Discussion on income inequality. Watch the 15th annual Annapolis Book festival live today at 10 a. M. Eastern on cspan2s booktv. [applause] good evening everyone. My name is john heubusch. I have the honor of being the executive director of the Ronald Reagan president ial foundation and instituted, to thank you all for joining us this evening. In honor of our men and women who defend our freedom around the world in uniform, would you please stand and join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag
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